While the effectiveness of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being debated throughout the country, it seems the federal stimulus bill has helped saved thousands of Florida teaching jobs.

Arne Duncan, U.S. secretary of education, said on a recent visit to Orlando that the stimulus bill has not only helped “stave off an education catastrophe,” but also helped save nearly 26,000 Florida education jobs.

According to the White House, Florida has received $3.1 billion in education stimulus to date, including about $2 billion in “state stabilization” money that retained jobs in varying school districts. Overall, the funding has helped save 16 teaching jobs at Jackson Middle; 1,655 teaching and other jobs in the Orange County Public Schools system and about 26,000 jobs throughout the state.

The jobs saved under the ARRA funding have helped to keep Florida’s education sector afloat while the majority of the economy continues to decline. The state’s education and health services industry employed 1,048,200 workers during June, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,050,700 workers during May, but a .6 percent increase from last year.

Meanwhile, the overall state economy has continued on a downward trend. During June, Florida’s unemployment rate increased from 10.3 percent to 10.6 percent, which was higher than the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.5 percent.

Florida had a total non-farm employment of 7,379,400 workers during June, down from 7,399,300 workers during May and a 5.1 percent decrease from last year.